


peel the scars from off my back

by concertconfetti



Series: Witchertober 2020 [4]
Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Battle at Kaer Morhen, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Lambert, Canonical Character Death, Child Abandonment, Child of Surprise (The Witcher), Coen - Freeform, Found Family, Gen, He's mentioned at least - Freeform, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kaer Morhen, List Fic, Lists, Pack Family, Unnamed Witchers - Freeform, Witcher Training (The Witcher), Witchertober (The Witcher), it's technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:48:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26856184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/concertconfetti/pseuds/concertconfetti
Summary: The final thoughts of Vesemir, Master of the Wolf School, Fencing Tutor, and Father-figure in protecting Geralt's ward, Ciri, at the Battle of Kaer Morhen.
Relationships: Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon & Vesemir, Eskel & Vesemir (The Witcher), Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia & Vesemir, Lambert & Vesemir (The Witcher)
Series: Witchertober 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952140
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37





	peel the scars from off my back

**Author's Note:**

> Tagged as Canon Divergence since there are a few things in here I made up - but it's also technically canon-compliant. Written for Witchertober 2020, Day 4 - Kaer Morhen.

Time stretches when you’re about to die. These are the things that Vesemir thinks of after he tells Ciri to run and rams his knife into Imelreth’s side:

  * No Witcher Dies in His Bed 
  * There’s a sorceress on the road to Kaer Morhen - he always hated sorceresses. With her is a little boy, can’t be more than five years old, holding a small stuffed horse in his arms. They’ve both got flame red hair. Vesemir waits some distance behind them, waiting to see what the sorceress does. The little boy wanders into the trees at her direction, and Vesemir watches her leave, easing her horse on at a clip, muffled by magic. When the little boy makes it back to the road, he’s baffled - at first, he’s certain his mother is playing a joke on him. It isn’t long, however, before he begins to cry. Vesemir’s heart breaks. 
  * Eskel and Geralt are “too close,” they say, as if allowing the children any sort of normalcy will guarantee their deaths in The Grasses. It’s a mentality the young ones picked up from the Cat School, while they were still training with those traitorous bastards. Vesemir has them spar one another, runs both boys ragged so that by night fall, they have an excuse to collapse on the same bed. “They worked hard today, harder than most. Let them have this.” 
  * Geralt loves Ciri more than anything. 
  * The Child Surprise, Lambert, punches him in the balls the first night out of town and gets a good kilometer head start on his escape. Shame his tracks are so easy to follow. 
  * Ciri’s wide eyes dart between Eredin and Vesemir. “Ciri - ” he pleads “- Run!”
  * Lambert “put a fire out” by lighting the entire candle on fire. Geralt and Eskel were impressed - Vesemir was not.
  * When Vesemir arrives in the valley, Kaer Morhen is a handful of plans on paper. He’s assigned a tent, a set of clothes, training gear, and a packmate. They spend a good chunk of their time stacking stones on the low walls and smearing mortar in the gaps. 
  * Humans weren’t built to live this long. 
  * After the first pogrom, Vesemir is tired. After Kaedwen and the Cat School plot, Vesemir thinks it might be better if the Wolf School ceased to be. He’s just glad His pups are alright, despite the fact a majority of them will die - he couldn’t bear it if they died in some pointless betrayal. 
  * Eskel and Geralt are angry - he can see it in their (blessedly lucid) glares. They refuse to speak to him after he explains the remaining trials. They’ll come around, eventually, but this part always hurts. 
  * Lambert hasn’t returned to the keep in nearly a decade - Vesemir is starting to wonder if he died somewhere out there on the Continent. He wonders if it matters, he mourns Lambert anyway. In the middle of summer that year, a Cat drags Lambert’s battered body off of a horse and yells for help. They get the Wolf safely into the keep and Vesemir begins patching him up. The Cat, Aiden, looks him up and down as he works and crosses his arms. “You’re not what I expected.” Vesemir snorts. “I rarely am.” 
  * When Eskel comes back from a hunt in the valley deeply wounded and Geralt comes back from his first year with dark circles under his eyes and Lambert almost dies and Coen does die and Ciri screams and his boys, his pups are frozen in the courtyard and when Geralt is broken hearted and Eskel buries the last remaining Pups with him, Vesemir realizes he’s never loved anyone so much as he loves his family. 
  * With him gone, there will be nothing keeping Eskel, Geralt, or Lambert at Kaer Morhen. Good. They'll be free of this place.
  * Vesemir loves his family more than _everything_
  * Isn't he lucky?



**Author's Note:**

> title from Welcome Home, Son by Radical Face


End file.
